Soul Position - Hand-Me-Downs lyrics

Come on say it loud look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down come on say it loud
Look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down

My momma gave me Donny Hathaway
"Young, Gifted and Black"
I miss the positivity, I wanna bring it back
But Rap nowadays is by a
Bunch of ignorant cats
No "Young, Gifted and Black"
Just guns, bitches and crack
I react by turning off BET
And Sambos telling me what blackness
Is supposed to be
Used to give us world news
Now it's all videos
Replaced Tavis Smiley with reality shows
If you let the TV define what black is
You think ice and violence is
All we think that matters
I guess this is what happens when
Rappers look up to thugs
And kids look up to rappers
To some of y'all if I don't
Talk about the gat enough
Or sell crack enough, I ain't black enough
But, I rather be a pro at being myself
Than be an idiot trying to be somebody else
What

Come on say it loud look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down come on say it loud
Look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down

I'm at the bus stop with my bike
Been there for a while
Moms taught me how to catch this
Route when I was a child
Another kid walks up, freakin' a Black & Mild
Fifteen, same age I learn shit's wild
An older lady walks up
Greets us with a smile
Asks how we both doing and sit's down
She knows what's it's like to
Grow up in the South
Civil Rights when the whites
Was hosing us down
I started thinking to myself that even
Though the times were tougher
They still took time out to
Speak to one another
But look at us, me and this young brother
Acting to proud to break down
And speak to each other
So inside I felt ashamed
Not sure of how to but I wanna change
And as long as I'm alive
Then the fact remains
That it's never too late for
Us to break the chains come on, y'all

Come on say it loud look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down come on say it loud
Look what we handed down
Don't it make you proud?
Look what we handed down

Things is bound to change